Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly?
Parallel translations
- WEB Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you?
- KJV Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
- NKJV Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you?
- NASB “Will he make many pleas to you, Or will he speak to you gentle words?
- NLT Will it beg you for mercy or implore you for pity?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks whether Leviathan will beg Job for mercy or speak gently to him. The fierce creature will never submit or plead to man.
Overview
With irony, God asks if Leviathan will make supplication or speak soft words, as a captive might to its master. Of course it will not; the beast acknowledges no human lord. The picture reinforces man's inability to dominate the creature and, by extension, the Creator. Job is led to see that he cannot bend even a beast to his will, let alone summon God to account.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Prov 15:1A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
- Prov 18:23The poor man pleads for mercy, but the rich man answers harshly.
- Prov 25:15Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.
- Isa 30:10They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.
- Ps 55:21His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 41:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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